wide of the mark

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Of a projectile

   Of a projectile: missing the target.

   • Each had a gun, and the three had been shooting at a number of rabbits. Only Werner had been successful, the others shooting wide of the mark.
2. 2

   (Very) inaccurate.

   • Well, I suppose you could say the weatherman was wide of the mark again then!
   • Prov[erb]. Acertadole ha Pédro a la cogujada, que el rabo lleva tuérto: Peter has hit the lark, for her tail is awry. An expreſſion in deriſion, when a man is wide of the mark.
   • [O]ur conjectures were like arrows ſhot in the dark—they were wide of the mark—till an old gentleman came into the room, who after affixing his ſpectacles on the ſuperior part of an aquiline noſe, told us—"he ſmelt a rat!"

The neighborhood

• synonymoff the mark
• synonymoff base
• antonymon the mark
• neighborby a long shot
• neighbormiss the mark